You might try to guess which group put this image up on a Billboard in New Zealand. D'ya think it's from an atheist group making fun? No, not at all. It's from St. Matthew-in-the-City Church. Since I've previously written on how to increase traffic to your Blog or site this is an example of it. It gets attention. So also does the title to this post of mine. Controversy gets people talking. So okay, let's talk about it.

Here's what they say about the Billboard:

In its ongoing effort to provoke conversation about spiritual matters, St Matthew-in-the-City will be putting up a Christmas billboard on Thursday that lampoons literalism and invites people to think again about what a miracle is. Is the Christmas miracle a male God sending forth his divine sperm, or is the miracle that God is and always has been among the poor?

It will feature an illustration that may disturb some. Mary and Joseph are in bed. Joseph looks down dejected. Mary looks sad. The caption reads: “Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow.”

It is intended to challenge stereotypes about the way that Jesus was conceived and get people talking about the Christmas story.

Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, vicar of St Matthew’s, is pleased at the amount of conversation it has already generated in just the conception phase around the meaning of the incarnation.

“Progressive Christianity is distinctive in that not only does it articulate a clear view it is also interested in engaging with those who differ. Its vision is one of robust engagement” he said.

“At Bethlehem low-life shepherds and heathen travelers are welcome while the powerful and the priests aren’t. The stories introduce the topsy-turvy way of God, where the outsiders are invited in and the insiders ushered out.

He argues that “the true importance of Christmas is in the radical hospitality Jesus offered to the poor, the despised, women, children, and the sick, and says: ‘this is the essence of God’. His death was a consequence of the offensive nature of that hospitality and his resurrection a symbolic vindication.” Link.

Got that? This church is a liberal one which supports the poor and downtrodden.

Again, the Billboard...

...lampoons literalism and invites people to think again about what a miracle is. Is the Christmas miracle a male God sending forth his divine sperm, or is the miracle that God is and always has been among the poor?"

Neither! Both options are completely untenable. The nativity stories are a myth, that's for sure. Literalism is dead. But what of the alternative? The liberal view that God miraculously helps the poor based on mythical and symbolic stories (like the resurrection, which they also admit!), are ludicrous too. Listen up you blind as a bat believers, if God helps the poor then why do so many children die every single day around the world, last I heard 25,000 children per day:

The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes.

Neither side gets it. The Nativity stories are a myth and there is no evidence of a miracle working God who cares for the poor. But who needs evidence when you have faith, right?

HT to the Friendly Atheist for the story.

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comments:

This is the one of the greatest pieces of blasphemy of all time! Up there with the time Mary Whitehouse tried to bang up (no pun intended!) Lemon and Gay News for printing James’ Kirkup’s poem “The Love That Dares To Speak It’s Name”.

Well put, John. People make all these statements-God loves the poor, etc.-and they don't usually get called on it. What would be a nice thing to say-or even an un-nice thing to say-to challenge them to THINK. To challenge them to snap out of their world where they hear this spiritual talk all the time. To show that it truly makes no sense out here in the real world. That what they are saying is OBVIOUSLY not true!

The virgin birth story doesn't appear in the oldest gospel of Mark and it appears nowhere in Paul's letters. It is obviously a second generation Christian invention.

The appeal of Christianity to the poor in the beginning was a chance at immortality and living in a bejeweled city with gold streets. Why that city should have walls is a mystery to me unless they planned on eternal invaders from outside.

Anyway, the idea of being rich is what appealed to the poor and because of their short lives at hard labor, immortality was also attractive.

The pre-millennialist view of the early Christians was also attractive. They would be rich, immortal, priests and kings and rule the world for a thousand years.

Since that time, Christianity simply became a meme. That is, it became a mind virus that gets passed on from generation to generation.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, this sickness was forced upon it for over a thousand years in the most savage and barbaric ways.

In spite of its appeal to the poor, it is the poor that it takes advantage of and uses to perpetuate the myth.

Blind as a bat believers? Wow, so the 25,000 children who die horrible deaths, in your opinion, were born and suffered and died and that's it? They're done? Well, kind sir, in my faith, those children are welcomed by Jesus with open arms and their hearts are pure. The last will be first, my friend. That doesn't mean I'm glad they suffered. But I do know the light is bright upon them, and they're pain is no longer.

As soon as Jesus was old enough to speak, his Mom told him, “You’re the son of God. When you were born the angel came, and the star stood in one place, the wise men brought gifts, and the whole world’s been waiting for you to come and do great things.”

And the little boy Jesus said, “Really, me? Are you sure?”

Everybody but Joseph. Joseph’s walking around going, “Yeah, you better be the son of God, I’ll tell you that. You had better be him little mister. And you better be the ONLY son of God. You understand what I’m saying, honey? I got enough problems without running a family full of God’s kids, O.K.? You sure it was God, right? Did He have any I.D.? He just said he was an angel and you guys went in the garden? Last time I take a job out of town, I’ll tell you that.”

Talk about a test of the guy’s faith. You know he’s doing his carpentry and his co-workers are going, “Oh, Joseph, how’s the…uh… son of God?” (Laughter.)

“You shut your mouth, shut up!”

(Joseph to Mary) “You don’t know what I go through at work, honey! I’m not saying you’re lying or anything, you just don’t know what people put me through.”

Sam Kinison, Have You Seen Me Lately?, CD____________________________

Jesus’s death was the result of all our sins, but his birth was the result of Mary and Joseph’s sins! Do you really believe that stuff about a virgin birth?!

Steve Riffenburgh

_______________________________If Jesus was conceived without a prior transaction of marriage, and his real Father split before he was born, then according to Hebrew law he was a “bastard.” And the law of Moses declared, “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to his tenth generation.” (Deut. 23:2)

Oops!

E.T.B.____________________________

When Jesus was born in a manger, according to the story, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, led by a star that “went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.” (Mat. 3:9) Now the closest star to the earth is more than a billion miles away. Can you imagine a star standing over any house? Can you imagine a star standing over the earth even? If any star came anywhere near the earth, it would immediately disarrange the whole solar system.

There is evidence for faith, but it is rejected and nullified by those who prefer to perpetuate sinfulness.

I do believe that the spiritual realm is manifested in the material world and that divinity can produce salvation in the way that scripture describes via Jesus because of my own experience.

I also believe that to deny any sort of spiritual intervention/manifestation can lead to asceticism which is not an expression of faith. There is grace for those who are working to earn something that has already been freely offered or to be good for goodness' sake, but that is truly pitiful and exemplary of one who has not yet received the gracious spirit of God.

One other thing, Jesus addresses those believers who pursue material wealth as being spiritually poor and in rags. He loves all ppl, whether rich or poor and knows how to approach each in accordance to where He finds them.